22 US embassies close before al Qaeda threats

PRAYER ALERT: The State Department ordered as of August 4 that 22 US embassies close in mostly Muslim-dominated nations. They include Iraq, Egypt, Libya, Yemen, and Saudia Arabia. The State Department also sent out an extraordinary global travel alert. It warned US citizens of al Qaeda threats of terrorist attacks from August 4 through August 31. (It so happens that August 4 is the Night of Power when Muslims are praying to djinn spirits to empower attacks against US agencies and interests worldwide). According to US intelligence officials, these drastic alerts and measures were based on electronic messages they had intercepted from senior al Qaeda operatives. Many say that the widely-criticized NSA cyber-spying campaign is needed to ferret out such secret terrorist exchanges.

But there is no secret about the al Qaeda threats. On July 30 al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri posted on jihadist forums acall for attacks on US interests worldwide. He urged fellow militants to retaliate against American military actions in Muslim nations. In the same way, on the eve of 9/11 last year, Zawahiri posted a video calling for attacks on US facilities throughout the Muslim world, especially in Libya.

The next day an armed mob attacked the US Consulate in Benghazi, Libya. The militants, with the cooperation of al Qaeda operatives, set the building afire, killing Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other US diplomats. On the same day radical Muslims attacked the US embassy in Cairo, Egypt. They replaced the American flag with the black al Qaeda flag. In the next three days militant Muslims staged anti-American protests in 17 other nations from the U.K to Australia. Did US embassies close then? The chant heard around the world was “Obama, Obama, there are still a million Osamas.” Yet since this rash of attacks President Obama has claimed dozens of times that al Qaeda threats are declining.

Why does the US need such vast NSA secret intelligence when it is not intelligently using the data that it has? Al Qaeda openly displays how its global strength is growing. Last summer the leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq posted online its new priority of freeing its comrades in prison. This strategy has now come to light suddenly between July 22 and July 30. In that short span, according to Business Insider, “we have 500 senior Al Qaeda leaders escape during two assaults on prisons in Iraq, more than 1,000 in a prison assault in Libya [in Benghazi itself], and another 250 in a particularly nasty Taliban assault on a Pakistani prison.“*

Al Qaeda threats of terrorist campaigns are constantly proclaimedon Internet,in mosques and in public speeches. For months before the Arab Spring rebellions began, they were openly advocated by the Muslim Brotherhood and other Muslim groups. And US officials in Benghazi were warning the Obama administration about Al Qaeda threats of an imminent attack months before it occurred. But their pleas for help fell on deaf ears. We must pray that US leaders—and the NSA—begin to hear the obvious instead of prying so indiscriminately into the obscure.

PRAY WITH US: Father God, You are Lord of the heavens. You rule over all the kingdoms of the nations. You have seen the US embassies close, but You are not shaken. We pray to You on behalf of US citizens and all non-Muslims traveling or living in Muslim-dominated lands. Protect them, Lord. In many of these places, meeting and evangelizing and even speaking in Your name is forbidden. Now moving and traveling by any non-Muslim is threatened. Even Muslims themselves are victims of militant violence.

But where US agencies are in retreat, and US embassies close, we ask that You arise. Be enthroned in the praises of your persecuted remnant in these nations. Be exalted in their prayers and ours. Let God arise. Let His enemies be scattered. Show that there is no God but You, and no Savior but Jesus Christ. Cause their prayers to Allah and djinn spirits to come to naught. Cause the Night of Power to pass powerlessly. Throw all their plans of attacks into confusion. But bring clarity to the leaders of free nations. Let every real alarm sound in a way that they can hear. Expose the real enemy, so excessive spying on the innocent will be abandoned. And raise the standard of freedom before the enemy’s flood. Pour greater waves of Your Spirit out as we pray. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. Release the captives of Islam, and show them that it is the Son of God who sets them free. In Jesus’ name, amen.